Microsoft has given its former Unified Communications (UC) solution, Office Communications Server, an overhaul. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is a solution that integrates telephony, IM, e-mail, and the Microsoft Office ecosystem into one unified communications platform.

The biggest benefit of a single UC solution such as Lync? A potential lower total cost of ownership. Instead of having communications scattered about various service providers, a single UC solution means that an organization has several technologies in one centrally managed platform. With Lync, these services are delivered "in-the-box" under a relatively simple licensing structure.

Lync Server is being marketed as a single platform of converged communications that works with or can even replace traditional PBX systems third-party voicemail and legacy audio and Web conferencing solutions. It's offered as an on-premise client/server deployment; a hosted solution that is a feature of Microsoft's new Office 365 service, and also works with hosted Exchange and SharePoint. Lync is also deployable in a hybrid environment: part hosted and part on-premise. Pre-requisites for on-premise installations include Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server. On-premise Lync requires a license for each Lync Server 2010 instance and a CAL for each user or device.

Here are feature highlights:

Lync 2010's rich client interface is a central feature. The client provides immediate, visual representation of a user's presence. The user experience is one of a beefed up IM client that interfaces with other third-party IM platforms, e-mail, and voice-mail. In addition, a user's presence is displayed on Windows phone devices that are running Communicator Mobile. This user "presence" information is also available in Office, Outlook and other applications by default.

Flexible contacts management is another feature. Contacts can be sorted by groups, status, and relationships. Users can tag contacts who are unavailable; this will send the user an automatic notification when that contact becomes available. Lync delivers re-designed "contact cards" that contain individual contacts, distribution groups, personal groups, and instant messaging agents. These cards are available across Office applicationsusers can access a hover card with a picture, note and communication options.

Group Chat allows groups of users to participate in discussions. Conversation history is maintained. Once a user joins a chat room he can post messages as well as images, files, hyperlinks and emoticons.

A "business social networking feature" found in platforms such as Salesforce and Cisco's Quad is Skill Search  users perform searches pulled against Share Point to find those with a particular skill set of areas of expertise within an organization or shared interests.

Lync 2010 has extensive Outlook integration. This includes single-click meeting scheduling; a feature also in Communicator Mobile. Lync Server 2010 provides a feature similar to traditional audio-bridge services including PSTN dial in with touch-tone call commands.

One of the more powerful features is sophisticated video conferencing. Lync 2010 can display a 360-degree video panorama of a meeting room or locations. When there are multiple participants in a video or Web conference, Lync 2010 detects the active speaker and displays that person in the video windows. It's a powerful feature and worked well during a demonstration. Conferencing supports high definition video and VGA video. Meeting features include whiteboarding, desktop and applications sharing. Users can also record meetings.

The server portion of Lync has several UC administrator functions. One is a telephone administration console which gives control over what you find would in a typical business PBX system: auto-attendant, call park, call forwarding and transferring, routing and call groups. While Lync's telephone capabilities do not seem to be tailored to service a high-volume call center, it can deliver a full telephone experience. Calls are placed from within the Lync desktop client or head and hand sets. Admins can setup environments where users can place calls not only within an organization but externally. Interoperability with gateways and SIP options provides a vast landscape of telephony functionality.

Authentication throughout Lync for Microsoft shops is done via Active Directory; so there's no additional log-on, passwords or PIN numbers for users to remember.

Lync Server 2010 is sold in two editions: Standard and Enterpise. Both have the same feature set; the exception of that Enterprise is suited for larger organizations with scalability and high-availability requirements. On-premise deployments require a license for each instance of Lync Server 2010 and a CAL for each user and device. Hosted Lync requires a User Subscription License for each user.

About the Author

Samara Lynn has nearly twenty years experience in Information Technology; most recently as IT Director at a major New York City healthcare facility. She has a Bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College, several technology certifications, and she was a tech editor for the CRN Test Center.
With an extensive, hands-on background in deploying and manag... See Full Bio

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